What one MES contract is worth
The Micro E-mini S&P 500 trades on CME in increments of 0.25. Because its point multiplier is $5.00, one tick is worth $1.25 and a full point is worth $5.00 — per contract, in both directions. Multiply by your contract count for the position.
The number that catches people out is notional value: price × $5.00, which is the exposure one contract actually carries, not the margin you posted to open it. Change the price above to see it for the level you're trading.
MES vs ES
MES is the micro version of ES (E-mini S&P 500), at one tenth the size — $5.00 per point against $50.00. Same index, same hours, same tick size; 10× less money per tick.
What an MES round turn costs
CME charges $0.35 exchange and $0.19 clearing per side, plus $0.02 NFA — so $1.12 per round turn, per contract, before your broker's commission. These rates are the same at every broker, because the venue charges them, not the broker — and most brokers' fee column doesn't include them. On MES that's 0.9 ticks of cost on every trade.
Who trades MES and when
Rolls on the same quarterly cycle as ES and tracks its expiry timing exactly — it's the same index at a fraction of the dollar risk. Built for smaller accounts and funded/prop-firm evaluations, where a full ES contract's per-tick exposure would blow through a daily loss limit long before a strategy gets to prove itself.
Sizing an MES position
Contract value is only half the question. How many MES contracts you should trade depends on your account size and stop distance — the position size calculator works that out, and the expectancy calculator tells you whether the resulting trades pay over time.